Saturday, January 28, 2017

the start of the peel

People really dislike comparing trump to hitler for some reason. The parallels are stark for me. If you can't see it then you aren't looking. Fascist - tick. Popular - tick. Hateful - tick. Sneaky - tick. Followed and adored by idiots who are only concerned about feathering their own nests - tick. Wrote a book - tick.Of course trumps book was called - the art of the deal and in it he explained how he diddled so much from so many.NZH

This is also a very old game for Trump, who has spent more than 40 years extravagantly and publicly lying in order to burnish his reputation, mislead the public about his track record as a businessman, and draw attention to himself as a man-about-town.

Trump partially owned up to this during his early ascent as a national celebrity, when he and his ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, published "The Art of the Deal" in 1987. Trump described repeated falsehoods, doublespeak and exaggerations as tools he used to get ahead in business and life, and labelled them "truthful hyperbole."

This is where the alternative facts worldview comes from - way back when trump realised the DEAL is the goal not how you get to and close the deal. THE DEAL itself is the be all and end all.

Over the last week, Conway has tried to rebrand "alternative facts" as "alternative information" and "incomplete information." The latter two are unlikely to be the phrases that stick, however. Even so, Conway continues repackaging Trumpisms with brio, telling the Hollywood Reporter this week of her zeal for her role and the power Trump has invested in her. "If you see me on TV, it's because he wants me there," she said.

Spinning takes energy, however, and it requires unpeeling some moral glue to do it day after day - especially in the Trump era, when misdirection and lies are likely to be regular occurrences. For his part, Trump has done this for decades and it hasn't appeared to take much of a toll on him.

But the White House's machinations are likely to take a toll on Conway, Spicer and Trump's other advisers (as it did on some of their predecessors in decades past) if they decide to stay in the presidential arena for long. Proximity to Trump can be corrosive.

yep corrosive indeed - watch these events take place and imagine being way back in the 1930's in Germany - we are all living in history.